4.1. Chunked Transfer Coding
The chunked transfer coding wraps the payload body in order to
transfer it as a series of chunks, each with its own size indicator,
followed by an OPTIONAL trailer containing header fields. Chunked
enables content streams of unknown size to be transferred as a
sequence of length-delimited buffers, which enables the sender to
retain connection persistence and the recipient to know when it has
received the entire message.
chunked-body = *chunk
last-chunk
trailer-part
CRLF
chunk = chunk-size [ chunk-ext ] CRLF
chunk-data CRLF
chunk-size = 1*HEXDIG
last-chunk = 1*("0") [ chunk-ext ] CRLF
chunk-data = 1*OCTET ; a sequence of chunk-size octets
The chunk-size field is a string of hex digits indicating the size of
the chunk-data in octets. The chunked transfer coding is complete
when a chunk with a chunk-size of zero is received, possibly followed
by a trailer, and finally terminated by an empty line.
A recipient MUST be able to parse and decode the chunked transfer
coding.
4.1.1. Chunk Extensions
The chunked encoding allows each chunk to include zero or more chunk
extensions, immediately following the chunk-size, for the sake of
supplying per-chunk metadata (such as a signature or hash),
mid-message control information, or randomization of message body
size.
chunk-ext = *( ";" chunk-ext-name [ "=" chunk-ext-val ] )
chunk-ext-name = token
chunk-ext-val = token / quoted-string
The chunked encoding is specific to each connection and is likely to
be removed or recoded by each recipient (including intermediaries)
before any higher-level application would have a chance to inspect
the extensions. Hence, use of chunk extensions is generally limited